Board Game DIY

Do your kids like games? Mine do. Every year my kids love to play games at a table. I've found that they like me to play, too. Here are some games we have made. Use these ideas to springboard off and make your own games for kids.

Trail Game

This game is a favorite. We've used it for many years. I used paper scraps to make spaces for the trail. When I first made the gameboard, I didn't include lines along the sides of the colored trail; that caused confusion. For the spinner, I taped paper strips to a paper circle and taped all of that to a lazy susan. Place an arrow beside it and spin away. (They love the spinner!) For game pieces, we use foam beads. But we've used game markers from old games, small Lego bricks, and buttons as game pieces, too. (For more details about this game, see this post.)


Trail Game #2

I made this adaptable board game using a file folder and stickers. Create the trail across the folder. Create cards for moving through the trail with stickers and index cards. This game now resembles Candyland. Use binder clips for game pieces. Easy and fun to play. Add words, letters, numbers, or quantities of dots to your cards to add more learning opportunities. (For more details and ideas see this post on Pre-K and K Sharing and this post on Brick by Brick.)


Large Trail Game

I used the Giant Game Floor Mat to make a large trail game. I printed arrows and words on paper and slid into the mat. We used a purchased spinner and lids covered with colored tape. This game is fun because it's super-sized. You could also make a homemade game mat by taping large freezer ziplock bags to a tablecloth or drop cloth. (See this post for more details about the game and markers.)


Counting Game

I made this counting game recently for us to play. I made a trail of stickers around the outside of a folder. On some of the stickers, I drew a square. I made a "river" in the middle of the folder. Kids would roll a numbered cube and move around the trail. (We used old game markers.) When landing on a square, kids rolled a cube and counted that many marbles to put in the river. This was a lot of fun. (See this post on Pre-K Pages for more details and variations.)


Race Game

Cindy made this game. We've played other games like it in our class and the kids love it. In this game, the bears (or markers) are competing, not the children. Draw a grid on a piece of heavy paper. Use stickers to mark each color "lane." (You could also color the spaces with a marker.) Make a cube with matching colors on the sides. (Use a boutique tissue box as a homemade cube.) Kids take turns rolling the cube. Whatever color is on top of the cube indicates which bear moves one space. Continue playing until one (or all) of the bears reach the finish line.

What games have you made? I'm always on the lookout for more!

Using Our Homemade Light Box Again

Do you have things that you have made or used and then, for some reason, don't bring back for a while? A few years ago I made a homemade light box. And since that time, it's just sat in my garage with my other clutter of supplies and resources. I haven't had a particular reason for not using it again. It just didn't come to mind or seem to be right at any particular time.

Maybe I was still waiting to refine it. Maybe I just forgot about it for a while. Well...whatever the reason, it's just not been used.

A couple of weeks ago, it came back to my mind as we were planning things to do. We pulled it out, washed it off, replaced the batteries in the camp light, and put it out again. I added our floral marbles and some foam letters.

I printed some words on cards, key words/names from the story. These were at the side, waiting for use if the children chose to use them. The children didn't choose to do that.

Instead they chose to experiment with the gems.

And make names. Their names.

This wasn't the most revolutionary activity. But it pulled in a group of girls to work together for a while.

It pulled in one boy to work and work and work. He spelled his name. His first name. And then his whole name.

This experience reminded me that a great activity does not need to be something new I buy or make. It may be something I already have. I'm going to go "shopping" among my resources more often. Remind myself what I have and what could be used again.

This light box may not be one of my favorite things yet. It may still need some reworking to make it just like I would like it. But I will definitely bring it back and try some different things on it.

And not wait years to use it again.

DIY Sign Posts in the Blocks Center

I knew a long time ago that I had married the right person for me. My wife is wonderful. But this week, I walked into our classroom and found these set up.

Sign posts for our the blocks center! When we've used our logos before, we've taped them to blocks or cardboard tubes. That still works great. But Cindy wanted something else. She got plastic lids, wide craft sticks, and clothespins. She made a slit in the lid and inserted the craft stick. Using hot glue, she secured the stick and then glued the clothespin to the other end of the stick. Presto! Sign posts that can be changed as we see fit.

Our boys really enjoyed using these signs. They built and incorporated the signs in their construction. They read the signs, at least some of them. They added them to what they built. Then they built specific structures for the signs. (And sometimes they built and ignored the signs. That's okay, too!)

I think these sign posts could be really useful in other ways. In addition to using them for street signs or other block play, here are some ideas I had.

• Clip on words cards for kids to read or write or spell with letter tiles.
• Add cards with numbers and kids could count out quantities. 
• Clip on sorting categories and kids could place items or pictures under the appropriate signs.
• Use numerals and plus and equal symbols to create addition sentences; use manipulatives with the signs to create the totals.
• Add statements or key words in different centers or other activities.
• Clip on instructions for a recipe or science experiment.
• Use name cards for place settings or other dramatic play in the home center.

I love repurpose ideas and these are a great addition to our collection of resources. Thanks, Cindy!!

Adaptable Board Game

Recently I posted on Pre-K and K Sharing blog - about a homemade board game made of materials from the office supply store. It's a trail game played like Candyland (moving through the board by colors). Details of making the game can be see on that post.

One thing I really like about this game is that it is easily adaptable to any type of content. Kids can just play it with the color cards and develop social skills and color recognition skills.

In the original post, I also showed using the color words or sight words and vocabulary words to play the game.

Then I went to volunteer in a kindergarten class. We played a letter game, letters written on spaces of a gameboard. I immediately thought of my game. We could use cards with letters to increase letter identification (and make sounds to reinforce phonics, too).

Kids can also practice numeral recognition, with numerals on the cards.

They can practice counting and subitizing. (Subitizing is recognizing a quantity of items or dots without counting.)

You could also practice addition facts or other math facts by putting them on the cards. Or write questions about any content or story.

My favorite resource to make or use is one that can be adapted to lots of different uses. This one is great!

Inspiration from the Blogosphere - 7/14/14

Here are some things that caught my attention this week. I can see all of these becoming a part of my classroom.

Salt Painting (Jojoebi Designs) - Glue design, sprinkle salt, paint with watercolors. I see lots of opportunities for exploration and creativity.

Forensic Science for Kids (Lovable Learning) - Put together a kit to explore forensic science techniques.

Fine Motor Math Game (Pre-K Pages) - Homemade cubes, beans, chenille stems - counting practice...and maybe finding patterns.

DIY Play Dough Toys (Kids Activities Blog) - It's not often that I want to immediately do what a blog post contains. This one made me want to go to the 24-hour Walmart at midnight to get outlet covers. We're definitely trying this.

Spin Art Rocks for Kids (Meri Cherry) - I've seen using a salad spinner to make paintings - and even paint t-shirts. But I haven't see the rock idea.

I liked each of the above ideas because they repurposed or reused items in new ways. I always enjoy that.

I've also been following the Challenging Behaviors book study, collecting those posts on my book study page. Some great stuff in those posts.

And I saw this post about challenging behaviors, too: Perspective - A Powerful Tool for Challenging Behaviors (Not Just Cute)

Anything that really inspired you this week?

Play Dough Inspiration from the Blogosphere

I've posted about play dough on PreK and K Sharing blog.

So I've been thinking a lot about play dough. I remember my mom making play dough. And years later, when I made my own play dough for the first time, those memories came flooding back.

Play dough is so versatile and can generate lots of learning opportunities. Here are some ideas from around the blogosphere related to play dough.

Dr. Jean, on her great blog, recently had a whole series on using play dough in the classroom--

• Play Dough 101
• Play Dough 102
• Play Dough 103

Here are some other recipes for play dough--

• Got Dough? (Dr. Jean)
• Best Ever No-Cook Play Dough Recipe (Imagination Tree)
• Ocean Slime (Buggy and Buddy)
• Dirt Dough (Growing a Jeweled Rose)

Here are some things to do with it--

• Fresh Herb Sculptures (Nurture Store)
• Make a Puzzle (This Reading Mama)
• Play Dough Center (Pre-K Pages)
• Fun Props for Play Dough (Teach Preschool)
• Name Search Play Dough Game (Homegrown Friends)
• 3 Essential Play Dough Tools You Might Already Have (Tinkerlab)

Inspiration from the Blogosphere - Repurposing Edition

This week I read all kinds of posts about repurposing things. That's my favorite things to do for the classroom and the kids! Here are some great ideas that I ran into this week--

10 Playful Ways to Transform a Pizza Box (Teach Preschool) - Deborah and Courtney give ideas for all kinds of ways that pizza boxes can supplement your classroom.

Lego Math: Skip Counting (Kids Activities Blog) - I've never seen this idea before. Use Lego bricks to "build" a skip counting sequence. Lots of thinking can happen with this.

DIY Pool Noodle Connectors (A Little Pinch of Perfect) - A truly great repurposing idea (and just in time for summer)! I don't have a need for this at the moment, but I still want to hit the dollar store and get these just to make them.

Rock Dominoes (childcareland blog) - I'm always looking for ways to incorporate nature materials in learning experiences. I love these rock dominoes. I think they look great just in a bowl or jar, too.

Sidewalk Chalk (Mr. Mark's Classroom) - Kids love chalk, and kids love writing on sidewalks. Make your own sidewalk chalk and have a great time outside.

Build a Play Dough Toolkit (Modern Parents, Messy Kids) - Play dough can be a great creative exploration for kids. Throw in a few household items and have even more fun. Look around your house or classroom and find new things to add to your play dough fun.


P.S. It's summer, so it's time for the summer book study. This year the focus isn't on a book but a topic - challenging behavior. Find out all the details at Pre-K Pages. (Check out this page for past book studies. I'll post updates for this year's study there, too.)

Time to Refocus

When I began this blog - gosh, 5 years ago - my intent was to think about and talk about how young kids learn and to share my ideas for teaching them. In recent years, this blog has been more about my personal journey instead of ideas about teaching. Thank you for following that journey. I really appreciate it.

Now, I face a transition. (That's for a later post.) And I think my blog needs one, too. I would like to refocus the blog back on teaching and ideas about teaching. My reflections will always be a part of my blog - after all that's who I am.

But the blog should be about teaching and kids and ideas - not me. In light of that refocus, here are some posts that inspired me this week.

Inspiration from the Blogosphere

How to Make Ice Cream in a Coffee Can (Twodaloo) - I've done this before and it's a lot of fun. I enjoyed reading this post and being reminded of this great idea!

PVC Pipes + Connectors + Water = Physics (rubberbooks and elf shoes) - I always enjoy using PVC pipes. My kids have asked for water before but I haven't been set up to include it. This post shows me that we need to do it! (One of my top posts on PVC pipes)

Play or Work (Elementary My Dear, or Far From It) - Jenny sums up in this post what I've been feeling all year. I think I've been living with "messages that go against everything I believe." I'm not sure where to go from here, but things are going to change. This post reminds me of that.

Environmental Print Bingo (Pre-K Pages) - I love using environmental print and this post is a fun game using environmental print. And you can get a free printable!

Selfie Puzzle (Getting Messy with Ms. Jessi) - Combining technology, a favorite trend (selfies), and craft sticks? A great combination. And building number sense by adding numerals.


Thanks for being a part of my online community. I have learned so much from each of you and hope to continue to share and learn with you.


P.S. Have you seen this book by Deborah Stewart? She's the hardest working preschool blogger and teacher and writer and queen-of-all-media. And a great online friend. This book helps parents know more about developing skills and supporting learning so kids will be ready for the start of kindergarten.

Inspiration from the Blogosphere This Week

Here are things I've tweeted, linked to, or posted to Evernote this week. (No, not pinned. I don't do Pinterest.)

DIY Junk Bingo Game (Teach Preschool) - Deborah posts a terrific idea. I'm going to figure out a way to do this with my second graders.

12 Awesomely Easy But Incredibly Ugly Indoor Activities for Kids (What Do We Do All Day?) - Indoor activities that kids do my themselves. According to the blogger, these may be ugly but they're awesome. I agree.

Storing and Organizing Independent Reading Books for Students (Clutter-Free Classroom) - Oh, does my classroom need to be clutter-free. I certainly enjoy reading about and saving ideas to make that happen. These ideas are great for getting a handle on students' independent reading. I'm going to implement some of these. (Honest, I will.)

DIY Notepads (Make, Take & Teach) - I love a good DIY/reuse and recycle idea. This one has lots of possibilities. I really like having the adhesive recipe.

Stretching Sounds in Words (Mrs. Jump's Class) - I've been looking for simple techniques and strategies for helping my struggling readers. I really like Stretchy. (And I think I need some wands. Wait! There are some in my garage right now!)

Why You Shouldn't Respond When a Difficult Student Has a Good Day (Smart Classroom Management) - Getting a handle on classroom management has been a challenge for me...especially lately. This post really made me think about some of my responses.

12 Half-Truths Pundits Say to Teachers (Education Rethink) - John always makes me think and rethink. His post has some great thoughts about reformers and their comments to teachers.

Top 12 Hilarious Teacher Jokes (Teach Hub) - And something just for fun!

An eclectic mix - but I guess I'm an eclectic reader.

What post did you save, tweet, link to (or pin) that I need to read?

Inspiration from the Blogosphere: Sight Words

In my new adventure in first grade, I've learned a lot of things...and a lot of things have become more prominent to me. One area that is now looming large in my awareness - sight words. In the past few weeks, I've seen that knowing these words can really help my readers. I have some low level readers that just don't know many words. They can use their knowledge of sounds to figure out unknown words. They can use context clues and illustrations to get those "tricky" words. But their reading would improve if they just knew the sight words, those recurring words that sometimes defy the rules of phonics.

My goal in these last (?!) weeks of school is to help those readers move forward. One way I'm going to do that is to help them gain a few more words. We'll practice at school and I'll try to help them practice at home. So, I've been gathering ideas from the blogosphere.

One idea that we've already been using it sight word parking lot. I first read about this game on Simply Centers. I filed the idea away in my brain for a while. And recently decided to use it with my readers. I had used these Word Wall Bingo cards in the past. (My cards are laminated.) I wrote sight words on the spaces with wet erase markers (to be more durable but still erasable). I would call out words and the kids used cars to mark the words they found. We would continue until we had three in a row. They loved this. We will be playing this again...and I'll make a center for pairs to play together.

Here are some other ideas that I've seen recently that I want to use with my readers:

Sight Word Guess Who (This Reading Mama) - The post is older but someone just linked to it recently and I discovered it. A reading version of the Guess Who board game. Players must guess the secret word of their opponents.

Sight Word Path (Classroom Game Nook) - This game is adaptable for sight words, vocabulary words, or any other word learning you need.

Teaching Sight Words (Make, Take & Teach) - This post is full of ideas and games for sight words. The one that I definitely will incorporate quickly is Fiddle Sticks, words on craft sticks. Kids draw out words from a cup and keep the ones they read. If someone draws out the marked stick, he must return all his sticks to the cup. Fun!

High Five Sight Words (Growing Kinders) - I like the simplicity of this idea. It can help all my readers, with reminders of words they know or focusing on new words we are working on each week.

I have lots more ideas in my file...and find new ones each week. Do you have any particular favorites in helping readers?

Game On!

Today I am blogging on the collaborative blog PreK and K Sharing about making games for kids.

Here are a few posts about making and playing games.

Posts on Brick by Brick

• Letter Twister Game (using the Giant Game Floor Mat)
• Toss and Spell Game
• Our Trail Board Game
• Life Sized Board Game
• Pick Up Sticks 

Posts on Other Blogs

• DIY Bored Game (Gardening Without Skills)
• Swimming Pool Math Toss (Blissfully Domestic)
• Paint Chip Matching Game (Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning)
• Parking Lot Game (House of Baby Piranha)
• "Car"d Game (Toddler Approved)
• Paint Chip Game Board (Alphamom)
• Ziplock Quilt Math Game (Pre-K Pages)
• Color Game (Teach Preschool)

What homemade games have you made? What's your favorite game to play with kids?

Magnetic Sticks

We made magnetic sticks by adding self-adhesive magnets to colored craft sticks. As I set up this week, I was thinking about Deborah's recent post about invitations on her Teach Preschool blog. So I set up the materials like this:

The first kids came in and this is what happened. (I didn't suggest he do this.)

Then the kids began to experiment.

Note someone changed my H to "a tic-tac-toe shape."

An alien

How many? "...10, 11,12..."

A sun and stars

An invitation of what to do...and letting the kids use their own ideas. Our magnetic sticks were a success!

The Supermarket

This week we put out some signs in the blocks center - signs of various food places and grocery stores.

One guy decided to build a grocery store/supermarket.

With parking lot.

The boy took the suggestion and made it his own - using his ideas to create a really great building.

(Our signs were a little small. Cindy found the signs/logos online but couldn't make them larger. I'm thinking that I may take my camera around town and photograph some signs.)

No Dry Erase Boards?

I'm posting today on the collaborative blog PreK and K Sharing.

My kids love to use dry erase boards, large and small. But what if you don't have a dry erase board...or want several more?

Check out these substitutes for dry erase boards.